gershon hepner

Appasionata - Poem by gershon hepner

To music’s passion marvelously martyr, Beethoven wrote the great Appassionatain 1803, while trying to competewith deafness that by then was quite complete.

Amazing how this handicap could befor him a hurdle over which he’d fleewith flying jumps, while taking little heedof those who could not keep up with his speed.

His signature became in every clefthe proof that handicaps like being deafmay, if they’re treated with disdain and passion, a signal not for pity or compassion, but challenge, which he proved was not absurdboth in his middle period and the third.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, opus 57, colloquially known as the Appassionata, is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period (the others being the Waldstein sonata, opus 53 and Les Adieux, Opus 81a) . It was composed during 1803,1804,1805, and perhaps 1806, and is dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna. Unlike the early Sonata No.8, Pathétique, the Appassionata was not named during the composer's lifetime, but was so labeled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. The Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his most tempestuous piano sonata until the Hammerklavier, being described as a 'brilliantly executed display of emotion and music'.1803 was the year Beethoven came to grips with his complete deafness. An average performance of all three movements of the Appassionata sonata lasts about 23 minutes.